Live To Tell: My brush with almost losing the kids.

My unabridged story. If you ask them, the guy and the girl had totally different perspectives.


It was a pretty long drive from Tokyu Hotel in Nagoya to Snow World, Nagano Prefecture. It would take about an hour or so, as dictated by the GPS, registering a little more than a hundred and fifty kilometres. We were travelling really fast, burning holes in our pockets with paying thousands of yens in toll fees, hoping to get there quickly to taste the highlight of this holiday trip: skiing in the snow. In our minds, our four-year old would be having fun sitting on tyres sliding down gentle slopes.

After driving through the longest tunnel –possibly 8km- it wasn’t snowing where we entered and snowing where we exited, we were beginning to understand why the GPS showed that we still had a good twenty to thirty minutes to get to our destination. We were down to ten kilometres. We were at the foot of the mountain. Beautiful snow. Almost there.


The roads were winding.


Naïve and totally unaware of the dangers ahead of us, we continued driving slowly into the snowy roads. We thought driving slowly meant that we are driving carefully and safely. We had no notion of the tools used in this part of the world: snow tyres or chained tyres, necessary for the course.

Our eyes were glued on the GPS, which we now swear by as it had gotten us quickly and reliably into (two) cities, even though we do not read Japanese. In short, we were still “Right On Track!”

We came to this narrow steep slope. Something probed my mind: how could two cars in opposing directions share that narrow roadway?

Anyway, there was Only ONE way to go on the GPS (to be honest, it was because we didn’t check!): and it was UP.

Still going.

Turning.

Driving.

Slowly.

Easy.

Navigating.

Barely a few slopes and making a few turns, we came to this part before a right turn where the wheels JUST WOULDN’T bring us forward (ie, it was too icy and slippery… imagine you had to put more force to prevent slipping).

Frightened.

We stopped.

Stuck in the ice –we don’t even know if we were “stuck”; but the car was not going forward on this icy slope and we were in the middle of nowhere without a soul in a foreign land with two young children.

We tried again.

HP stepped on the accelerator so hard that if that got us the momentum to go forward, we would have gained enough speed to fly straight ahead, off the cliff [he told me on retrospect that that wouldn't happen because he had the steering wheel steered in the right direction, so instead of flying forward, if anything, the car would have had a bad knock against the mountain side.... i have my reservations on this; what IF that collision throws us off the cliff?].

We were terrified!

Both of us got off the car, leaving the two front doors opened.

I implored and pleaded with him not to proceed, that is, if we could get out of the stuck-in-the-ice situation... i felt a premonition about the precarious situation we were in and i wanted to do what i normally do in such situations: Abandon the project, seek help and get out.

But he would not have it. He, being the cleverer man, the better driver, the scientific and rational one said: "Tell me what we should do! The ONLY way is UP." (There was no space to do a reverse). And YES, it does look more dangerous slowly reversing the car 'cos it does seem we would slide.

I calmed down when he said, "Let's get the kids out first, then we’ll decide what to do."

I was on the passenger's side, with the door still opened.

He walked to the driver's side.

The gear was on Parked mode.

The handbrakes were on.

The moment he switched off the engine (wouldn't that be the safest thing anyone would have done in that situation?), the car began to slide. i was pushed by my side of the door and i started sliding, without the strength to push the car. I could see that HP was trying with all his might to push the car on his side (he said afterward that he was trying to restart the engine - which he didn't managed to).

The kids were still in the car!

Those few seconds of desperation went: slid, slid, slid. i felt as if i was in a tsunami, having no control, completely swept by its force. The difference was that the impact was swift. i was pushed down the cliff and dropped a few metres. i was blocked from falling further down the cliff by the numerous trees in that spot.

HP called out in a weak voice, "Jeanne, are you there?"

i reached out and held the trees and climbed up.

From where i stood, part of the car was out in open space (this is where HP had his version –that only a teen weeny bit of the car was sticking out in the open- we held on to our versions, possibly because our viewpoints were different from where he and i stood). We were blessed that the events took place this way. And i kept saying Thank God for those trees in the precise location!



Lesson Learnt:
Not to be overly reliant on GPS (on paper it looks simple but the actual road conditions can be very different) AND Mapquest.com (an internet address search. Once, we were going to Yosemite Valley and I did not verify that it was the ONLY address… Apparently, there was another place with the same name. I was lucky my friend gave me a physical map to bring along and that saved us from being too lost, when we realised that we wasn’t quite heading for the right place).

To be Cont'd

Part II: Getting out; Our Heroes and Heroines